Sunday Classics preview: From Borodin to Broadway (1)

Alfie Boe, then about to appear in an English National Opera production of the Borodin-based Wright and Forrest musical Kismet, sings "Stranger in Paradise" on a June 2007 edition of ITV's Parkinson "chat show," hosted by Michael Parkinson.

by Ken

We're headed, let me say at the outset, for Borodin's one and only (and at that seriously unfinished) opera, Prince Igor, and I'm not sure that our previews have all that much to do with where we're going. But it still seems the obvious way to approach this unusual composer.

For their 1953 Broadway musical Kismet, the theatrical song-writing team of Robert Wright and George {"Chet") Forrest "liberated" all the tunes from Borodin. I assume everyone knows the source of the show's most famous tune. If not, or for that matter if so, here it is:

BORODIN: Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances

Boston Pops Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded June 20-21, 1957


TO TREAD MORE OF THE PATH FROM
BORODIN TO BROADWAY, CLICK HERE

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